Stevetype33 wrote:

Perhaps it's the 'own brand' typewriter of a large store chain.

I certainly do see an number of private label machines in my area such as Eaton's, Simpson's, Sear's, and even Viking, but there's never been a chain store, at least not in my area, called Monitor.

However, if that is the case, then the shape of the typewriter shoud be familiar to someone who knows the original make and model. The shape of its ribbon cover is very distinctive.
 

Stevetype33 wrote:

I wonder what shade of brown you'd call that...

Given the quality of the photo I doubt whoever took it had the camera's white balance correctly set. Take a look at the ribbon; does the red portion of it look like it should to you? The photo of the mystery machine is a poor representative of colour, so who knows what that machine's paint actually looks like in person.
 

I received an email from the seller this morning and thought that I would finally get to the bottom of this. Not so. In response to my request for as much detail as possible, the seller replied: "It is a monitor"

There was nothing else. Not even a period to end the pathetically unhelpful statement. And yet, somehow, it's been valued at $200. Based on what? I want that typewriter, for no other reason than to tear it apart and figure out what it really is, but I already know it won't happen; it's highly unlikely that she'll respond well to my generous offer of $35.

So for now the Monitor typewriter remains a mystery - to me at least.

I think that I've figured it out, which means I'm pretty sure it's '50s era British Oliver, possibly one of those copies of a Siemag, the German-designed models that they were producing at the time.

At first I thought it must have ended up in Canada packed with the possession of a British immigrant to the country, but it's keyboard suggests otherwise. You can see that it has the symbol for the dollar (and cents), including that for the British pound, so I guess they built this model to cover many markets and it might have actually been bought in Canada.

Based on this guesswork I raised my offer to $50, which predictably has been met with silence. It would be a novelty in my collection, but nothing more, and I'm quite leary of the treatment it's received; take a look at that jumble of keys all mashed together in the type guide.